The pro-Vietnamese communist regime that ruled Cambodia in the 1980s encouraged Buddhism in a limited way, and Theravada Buddhism was restored as Cambodia’s state religion in 1993. Almost 20 years of neglect have been difficult to reverse, however, and the religion has not regained the popularity and prestige that it had before 1975. Nonetheless, the social and psychological characteristics often ascribed to the Khmer-individualism, conservatism, patience, gentleness, and lack of concern for material wealth-represent Buddhist ideals toward which Cambodians, especially in rural areas, continue to aspire. A government census of 2019 reported that Catholicism surpassed Buddhism to become the largest religious denomination in Vietnam, although these findings are based upon the membership of an organized religious institution rather than individual belief or practice of a religion and may reflect the lack of need or practice of membership to a religious institution, as often found in folk religion and Buddhism (see Overview, above).

If one just takes a look at the various people who live in the Muslim World – from Nigeria to Bosnia and from Morocco to Indonesia – it is easy to see that Muslims come from all different races, ethnic groups and nationalities. It does not stand that these alterations should grow so wide that some people live their life in complete extravagance while millions are left to spend a life of miserable poverty and unhappiness. Aries may need to learn to slow down and appreciate Aquarius’ more unconventional perspectives, while Aquarius must be willing to engage in the more physical, sensory-driven experiences that Aries craves. Either spouse can petition a qadi court to obtain judicial divorce, but they must have compelling grounds for dissolving the marriage. In Ottoman Egypt marriage contracts commonly included stipulations of conditional talaq which were not otherwise recognized by the prevailing Hanafi school as grounds for judicial divorce, such as non-payment of maintenance or marrying a second wife. Examples of fault are cruelty; husband’s failure to provide maintenance or pay the immediate installment of mahr; infidelity; desertion; moral or social incompatibility; certain ailments; and imprisonment harmful to the marriage.

If this effort fails, the court adjudicates the dispute by apportioning fault for the breakdown of the marriage with the associated financial consequences. The court starts the process by appointing an arbitrator from each of their families in order to seek a mediated reconciliation. Nikah halala (also known as tahleel marriage) is a practice in which a woman, after being divorced by triple talaq, marries another man, consummates the marriage, and gets divorced again in order to be able to remarry her former husband. Under the Mamluks, women could waive the right to child support in order to obtain extended custody. In some areas under Ottoman rule it was hardly possible for women to obtain divorce except through khul’ due to the restriction imposed by the prevailing Hanafi school, though some exceptions have been found. Seventeenth-century sources indicate that non-Muslim women throughout the Ottoman Empire used this method to obtain a divorce.

The most serious problem was abandonment, which was not recognized as grounds for judicial divorce. Different legal schools recognized different subsets of these grounds for divorce. If the husband asks for a divorce and intercourse has occurred or he had been alone with her, he pays full mahr; if the husband asks for a divorce and the intercourse has not occurred, the husband pays half the dower; if the wife asks for a divorce and intercourse has occurred, the husband pays half the mahr; and if the wife asks for a divorce and intercourse has not occurred, then no mahr is required to be paid by the husband. A divorced woman could keep custody of the children unless she remarried and her husband claimed custody, in which case it generally passed to one of her female relatives. Child custody practices under Ottoman rule appear to have followed the rules of Hanafi jurisprudence, although in Ottoman Egypt children generally stayed with their divorced mother beyond the prescribed age.